Backflipped
by annaweasleylongbottom
Summary: The story of how a normal girl gets her life turned upside down, but luckily makes some new friends who she can...relate to.
1. My Life from the looks of it

This all started with a funeral. The one funeral no child ever wants to attend I might. Their parents'. After a mugging gone wrong and two gunshots later, I was sitting in the principals office having to be told that my parents wouldn't be coming home. It was the day after my 17th birthday. It was hard being put in an orphanage at this age. No one wanted to adopt someone who was just about to go to college. I still attend local schools though, and re attended ninjutsu lessons more seriously. Everyone always felt sorry for me so I use to imagine going off into far away lands where no one ever had to feel pity for me because everything just went right. I use to write these imaginations down and read them to the younger ones. That is until I ran away from the orphanage which is where my story really begins...

Running from the orphanage is the best decision I've made so far. No more lonely parents looking at me with me, knowing that no one will adopt me in the next year where I would be kicked out and living on my own. I run another block until I find a dark alley to catch my breath. Not that anyone will be looking for me. I lean against the building and slowly slide down. My long caramel hair sticking up, my worn black shoes resting on the pavement. My small nose covered in freckles wrinkles from the smell making my bright blue eyes water a bit. I hear a rustle beside me. Immediately, I lunge to the right getting away from the noise. Out from behind a trash bag come out a little green lizard type. It was bright green with small light brown speckles. Mesmerized I pick it up and play with it in my hand. It's sorta beautiful. Suddenly I hear another noise, this time a voice, spoken very...oddly.

"Is this the place known as the meeting place where we would be getting the delivery known as the package and will not be destroyed by the ones called the turtles?"

It sounds like a whole bunch of scary gibberish to me and I think it's best to leave. I carefully place the lizard back down and plan to run away from the scary speaking things. I start to tiptoe in the other direction but tripped over my own two feet landing face first into the alley. Great.

"What was that sound known as noise coming from the place known as there?"

My eyes have to be playing tricks on me. A giant robot skeleton was waking towards me holding a giant class container filled with some sort of..goo. This is the end. I'm dying right here right now.

"BOOYAKASHA!" Cried a voice. A beautiful life saving voice. A masked shadow hiding in the shadows screams knocking the robot over, as well as the ooze. It spilled all over the street. I attempted to get away from it but some of the goo got on my hand. I try to wipe it off my jeans as I scoot over away from the rest of it. The ooze had to be some kind of poison, my hand feels like it's burning. My eyes water in pain. It's like my whole body was changing. I scream in agony. Finally the pain was too unbearable and I black out in the dark alley.

"Is she dead?" Asks a curious voice.

"No, you idiot she's breathing."

"Oh dear." Says another

I moan. My eyelids felt like weights.

"Shhh guys she's waking up!" Said a different voice. How many voices were there?!

I cautiously open my eyes. When I do I wish I hadn't. In front of me are these giant man like turtles! They're turtles! My height and talking turtles. I almost faint again but something stopped me. I examine their faces a little more.

They approximately look the same at the moment but each have a different colored band around their eyes. What are these guys ninjas or something? Come on.

"We are not here to hurt you." The blue one says wearingly.

"Yeah we actual saved you!" Orange band blurts excitingly.

"Who-who are you?" I manage to stutter.

"I'm Leonardo." Says the blue again. "These are my brothers: Michelangelo, (Orange) Donatello,(Purple) and Raphael (Red). You can call us Leo, Mikey, Donnie, and Raph for short."

I nod.

"Where am I?" I ask not getting up.

"You're in the sewers. We have to lay low." Mikey says with a smile.

"Humans don't find us quite welcoming." The red one, Raph, says. Now I was able to sit up a little. I rub my eyes with my hands. When I open my eyes again my hands were green. My skin was green!

I scream loudly.

"WHY ARE MY HANDS GREEN!" I shriek.

"Well, you see," Donnie states "The alien things you were attacked with carry around this mutagen that fuses anything living thing with the last living thing they touched. So you must've touched something green. By the looks of it I would the common green lizard."

"Are you telling me that I am now part LIZARD?!" I scream again. This is _not_ happening. I'm dreaming.

"Uhh technically...yes." The purple says fearfully.

I hop off the couch where I was sleeping and dash to some nearby water to look at my reflection. My skin is completely green, but my chest was a yellow. I still had my carmel colored hair and small brown specks that use to be on the lizard replaced my freckles across my nose. I have now a long thick tail and only three fingers and toes. I look at myself in complete and utter disbelief.

"What is happening." I whisper to myself. I turn back to the four baffled brothers. "Is there any way to get me back?" My voice broke. I'm on the verge of tears here.

The boys look down and avoid eye contact. I got the message. I'm filled with so much emotion my legs couldn't support me anymore. The orange one, Mikey if I remember walks away from the group to join me.

"Hey it's not so bad down here. We've got a TV, video games, some cool ninjutsu stuff, and ALL the pizza you can eat!"

I lift my head. "What did you just say?"

"All the pizza you can eat?"

"No before that."

"Video games?" He questions.

"NO after that!"

"Oh the ninjutsu stuff! Yeah, we're ninjas! Cool right."

I smile a bit. Maybe this isn't as bad as I'm making it to be.

"So am I."

All the turtles look up at me completely dumbfounded.

"YOU ARE?!"

I look down at my now three-toed foot.

"I've been taking them since I was little, I always took them as a joke until a couple of months ago when my parents died in a mugging. I never wanted to be helpless like they were. I wanted to be able to protect myself and others. So I took them more seriously than ever."

I don't what possesses me to tell them the story in that much detail, but for some reason I feel safe here. I can trust these guys.

"I'm so sorry to hear that... Uh sorry I don't quite know your name." Says...Leo..?

I smile, this time a real smile. The first I've done since my parents.

"Call me Tessa, Tessa Amico."


	2. Some Training with a new Body

After my new...friends found out that I trained in ninjutsu they wanted to see how much I got. I still am getting use to my new body especially the tail. We all sat on out knees. Me in one side and the four brothers on the other. Mikey was the first to stand.  
"Yajime!" Someone announces.  
Mikey is the one to take the first move. Since I do t have any weapons we agreed that they wouldn't be allowed. Just hand to hand combat. Mikey throws a punch but I dodge it easy. I sidestep to the other side almost tripping over my tail in the process. He tries lunging at me again but I do a side roll away. Now it's my turn to attack. I throw quick jabs towards his stomach...or shell. It seems to hurt him so I continue. He dives down and grabs my feet tripping me. I flip my body so now he is down.  
"Alright alright I'm done!"  
He calls  
"Ow."  
I give out a bell like laugh.  
"Guess I'm not so bad."  
"You would've lost if I had my NUNCHUCK FURY!"  
I laugh and sit back down. I fight donnie for a while but he beat me by a hair, I held a pretty good fight with Raph but he beat me as well, Leo was last and I didn't stand a chance. I was down within minutes.  
"No fair!" I call, "I've been fighting for a while I'm tired!"  
"Well then I guess we will just have to have a rematch soon huh?"  
"Maybe I still need a little bit more practice too." I mumble.  
"You can train with out Sensai Splinter!" Mikey says happily.  
"Splinter?" I ask  
"Splinter is our master." Leo explains. He taught us everything we know.  
"I want to meet him." I state.  
"Okay." Says someone's who voice I don't recognize.  
I turn around to face a giant man sized rat walking alone two feet, dark brown fur and a cane.  
"Ah!" I jolt. I was not expecting that today.  
"That's Splinter." Donnie says.  
"Okay." I say my voice cracking in the process.  
I slowly stand up and bowed like I was suppose to. After all he was supposedly my new master now. We trained for a bit to see how much I knew, had pizza for dinner and then all started heading off into their bedrooms. Donnie was the first to leave said he had to tinker with something, then Mikey, Raph was right behind him, then Leo stayed up to watch a Space Heroes marathon or something before going disappearing. Master Splinter assigned me a room as well, living a sewer and all space isn't hard to find. There is an old tunnel of this abandoned subway stop that's blocked off. That's where all the bedrooms are kept, except for Splinter's whose is by the dojo. I stayed up late that night. It was a long day being turned into a lizard and all. I walk over to the area that looks like it was connected to the sewer. I look at my reflection through the water. Again I look at my now light green skin. The new curve of my body and now a tail. I sigh a long, tired sigh. Everything is different now.


	3. A Midnight Snack and some Handeling

I still have not gone to bed. It's past midnight by now. I'm just sitting here, motionless, thinking. This is not the first time I've done this. When I was young, even quite recently whenever I needed to think about something or just sort details of my life out I'd just sit. Sit and think. It was like meditating, which is probably why I picked up ninjutsu so easily. I planned on siting until morning until I heard a noise. I whip my head around to see what it was. I squint my eyes to see better in the darkness. Ali manage to catch is a shadow quickly rolling across the room into the kitchen. I hear the fridge open and close rapidly. I dart ice an catch the culprit. It's Mikey, a slice of pizza shoved into his mouth.  
"What are you doing?" I asked  
"Sometimes I eat pizza at midnight. It's my midnight snack." He responds honestly.  
"Mickey the only snack you eat is pizza." I reply.  
He smiles up at me all cute like.  
"What are you Doing up?" He turns the questioning onto me.  
"Well I was..uh.. Thinking."  
"Bleh About what."  
"Nothing in particular." I lied.  
"Oh." He paused." I'm glad that your here."  
This caught me off guard  
"Why?"  
Mikey shrugs. "You're cool, and I think you can kick Ralph's shell one day."  
I smile.  
Mickey stands up and starts heading back to his room. Halfway through he turns back around.  
"Are you coming?"  
"Uhh...no I think I was just going to..." I didn't get to finish my sentence because Mikey already grabbed my wrist and pulled me into my bedroom.  
"Splinter always says that sleep is our greatest ally. I think it's yours too." He says before leaving. Inside my room it's quite simple: there's a small bed with green and yellow sheets. A small lamp and dressier. That was it. And it was all I needed. Sleep was definitely my greatest ally.

The next morning was hard. I woke up groggy and just wanting I stay in this room forever. It was perfect. But I was a guest so I forced myself to wake. When I walk into the kitchen there was a girl, not too much younger than me with bright red orange hair in a ponytail and very...well she was wearing a cute outfit. It still caught me off guard. By the look on her face so did I.  
"Who's that!?" The girl shouted, not meanly just almost kind of unprepared.  
"Oh April that's Tessa."  
Donnie said taking another bite of pizza.  
"Pleasure." I say smiling. I stick out my hand for her to shake.  
"Well I can't say it's the weirdest thing I've seen in these past couple of months." Was her reply with a very lighthearted laugh. I think I was going to like her.  
"You're telling me." I mumble loud enough for her to hear.  
"April o'neal."  
"Tessa amico."  
After introductions I take a seat across from raph in between Mikey and Leo. April sat next to donnie.  
"So what's the plan today guys?" April asked  
Leo pondered over the question.  
"Plan? Why was there a plan. I mean there was those weird guys in the alley..."  
"Nothing new April. The only thing is that we rescued Tessa from some Kraang droids but not soon enough for her to be mutated." Leo said very professionally  
"Sorry about that" Mikey apologized  
"No worries" I answered.  
After my pizza I sat up from the table an went to the nearest bathroom I remember passing last night. I look at myself for a long time in the dusty and cracked mirror. It was still hard to grasp that this was going to be my permeant appearance. I guess it could've been worse. I could've been mutated with a slug or something.  
I walk out of the bathroom to have everyone staring at me. Did I have something on my face?  
"Hey Tessa we were wondering" donnie started  
"I mean if you're ready and we practice all day if you wanted..." Leo tried. Raph sighs loudly and rolls his eyes.  
"You wanna come on patrol with us. That is..if you think you can handle it." He finishes with a sly grin.  
I pretend to death glare him.  
"Yeah I think I can handle it." I shrug. How hard could it be?


	4. Buttkicking (only if it weren't mine)

I have never done anything so hard in my entire life. I thought calculus was tough. They were so fast. Flipping off buildings running everywhere. Even when I practiced all day I was no where as good in shape as these guys. They were like tanks.  
"Tessa do you want us to wait?" Leo called behind him a little worried. I didn't want them to stop for me.  
"No keep going." I encourage although all I wanted to do was lye down and eat away my sorrows of not being fit.

"I don't see anything guys." Donnie informed. I wonder if that meant we could go home?  
"What's that?" Raph pointed to an alley. From afar I could see them crouch down looking over the ledge. This gave me the time to catch up next to them. There were the Robots again, it looked like leaving a wear house.  
"Mutagen." Donnie whispered.  
"That doesn't sound good." Mikey commented.  
"Come one let's pound some Kraang." Raph said before jumping over the ledge. It looked like Leo was going to try to stop him but it was too late. Someone sighed and we all jumped in after him. This started a major breakout of fighting. I tried my best to just hold my own. I knew I wasn't ready so it was best just to stay on defense. That doesn't mean I didn't have my ass handed to me. I could feel my skin bruising. I didn't give up though. They already defeated me and got away with mutagen once. I wasn't going to let it happen again. I kick the Kraang on the side, my foot hitting its metal body. My foot seared with pain. I blocked some of its punches. Raph came in and stabbed it in the head with his shai. They forgot I don't have any weapons. After they fight I was badly bruised, my lip was cut open and both that and my nose were bleeding.  
"How'd I do?" I say with a blood clotted nose.  
"Not bad rookie." Raph said punching me on the arm. I didn't let it show that it hurt. So much.

Back at the lair I was exhausted. We walk in and I start heading to the couch. No way was I making it to the bed. Mikey however beats me to it and turns on the TV. Angry I just decide to lay on top of him, cramming in a space between his arms. My couch. He flips on space heroes and we all watch for a while. The hours got later and one by one we went to bed. Except Mikey didn't move.  
"Mikey?" I whisper, checking to see if he was awake. My response were a series of small snores. I tried to nuzzle my way out but I want able to move off the couch without pushing him off. I laid back down and shut my eyes. I felt the warmth of Mikey's arms and it suddenly made me sleepy. The background music of space heroes became more and more distant. And for the first night in a long time, lying in Mikey's arms on the couch, did I get a good nights sleep.


	5. Just a normal couple of daysI guess

"Tessa! Tessa! Tessa!" Donnie, Leo, and Mikey chant. It had been a couple of weeks since I've arrived into the lair and I've had plenty of time to practice. I was circling raph for our showdown.  
He makes the first move. He charges at me which I duck and dodge over to the side. Though he was the better fighter I was much quicker than him which made it evenly matched. I swing my body under his arm and punch his side. He reacts and I kick his knee. He snatches my foot and flips me over. I roll backwards onto my feet. I could feel sweat rolling down my face. He charges again. I take a few blows but throw a couple myself. I twist my body to trap him but he does the same move. We are trapped in each others traps. If I move I lose but if he did then he loses. The timing couldn't have been more perfect.  
"Alright." Donnie our ref announces. "It looks like we have a tie. again." We both untwist our bodies and bow to each other.

"I'll win one day." I smirk evilly.

"You wish." He retorts.

I stick my tongue out at him before sitting next to Donnie.  
"What the score ref?" I joke. Donnie squints his eyes as he thought.

"Well if I'm remembering correctly, which I always do, it should be raph 1 you 1 and 17 ties within the past week. Like I said we were evenly matched.

"How are we tied?" Raph complains. "I'm obviously the better fighter."  
I stand up placing my hands on my hips in defense.

"Maybe it's because I use more than my strength to fight!"

"That's all you need to fight!" Raph says in comeback. I was about to snap back but was interrupted by Sensai.

"She is right Raphael." He said in his smooth wise voice. "It is not all about strength but instinct, and the mind. Once you master all three will you truly become ninja."

"Aye Sensai." Raph grumbles and I shoot him a sassy smirk.

"Burrrnnn." Mikey says under his breath. Raph gives him a death glare. I choke a laugh as Sensai continues with today's lesson.

"Doonnnieeeee when do I get a T-Phone!" I whine playfully.

"You'll get it when it's ready!" He snaps and I laugh. I plop myself on the couch where Leo is watching Space Heroes. Again.

"Is that all you ever watch?"

"Pretty much." Raph mutters obviously unhappy with the choice.

"Why don't you just change the channel?" I ask Raph.

"Because hero boy won't let me."

"Shhhhhhhh!" Leo shushes.

"Wait a minute..." I say squinting at the screen. "We saw this episode yesterday!" I announce.

"Welcome to my world." Raph grumbles and I can't help but to giggle. I stand up and grab a slice of pizza.

After I ate it in 5 bites I walk over and start beating up the punching bag for fun.  
"Hey" I say out loud to no on in particular, "When do I get a weapon?" I finish while I do a nice round kick.

"How about now?" Says a calm voice. Splinter had come up behind me. I kinda love it when he does that.

"Really? Sweet!" I jump up in celebration. I follow him into the dojo where we tried out dozens of weapons. After two hours I decided on a Wakizashi. It was small sword, simple and really badass.

"Looks like you're not he only one with a sword now Leo." I tease.

"Bet I can still beat you though." Leo smirks playfully. I stick my tongue out at him. Turns out that he could...but it didn't bother me. Later that night they went in patrol. I do not want to join them. They come back late; beaten and bruised.  
"Who?" I ask with a solid tone. I'm getting use to that they were not indestructible.

"Fish Face and Dogpound." Mikey frowns, his eyes refusing to leave the floor. I got ice for all of them.  
"You'll get them." I say. Somehow I knew it was true.

Raph kicks something hard letting his anger flow through the tin can. I make strong eye contact with him as I hand an ice pack to Donnie to apply to his head. He is the first to look away. He didn't hit the tin can anymore. We all slept in the main room that night. The TV is still on, a muffle noise that no one is paying any attention too. We all just stare into the silence. I can tell it's hard for them. Trying to do all that they do.  
"Tomorrow when you go on patrol I'm coming with you." I speak into the room.

"NO!" They all practically jump out of their chairs. Then sat back down clutching their shells

.  
"It wasn't a question!" I sass. "I'm going." I cross my arms and head for my bedroom and slept soundless than I've ever before.

It's the night after and I'm getting ready. Weapon ready, I tape my hands, knee pads, went to the bathroom. I start heading to the turnstiles. The guys were waiting for me.

"We can't let you do this." Leo states. I looked up at them in annoyance.

"Not after last time." Donnie adds.

"Come on." I plead " I'm a lot better than last time!"

"Not risking it tonight!" Raph calls.

Before I knew it, each of them had one of my limbs. I kick thrash at them but they wouldn't give in.

"Guys let me go!" I twist my body, they just held me tighter. In the next minute I was locked in my bedroom unable to escape whatsoever.  
"It's for your own good at the moment!" Leo yells through the door before the stomps of their footsteps disappeared.

I am alone.


End file.
